LAHORE, May 14: Faisalabad defeated Vehari 15-5 on Wednesday in the opening match of the 1st National Under-15 inter-district baseball championship underway here at the National Cycling Velodrome Ground.

For the winners, Ali Shan scored three runs including a home-hit while Mohammad Safdar, Naseer Ahmed, Mahmood, Usman and Ali Nawaz contributed two runs each with Zeeshan and Mohammad Zaheer chipping in one each.

For Vehari, Junaid Malik scored two while Ahmed Nawaz, Saqib and Wasim added one run each.

The tournament, supposed to be participated by 12 districts, is now featuring nine outfits, only, after the scratching of three district teams, namely, Islamabad, Quetta and Karachi, due to a majority of their players being older than 15 years.

“Thirty-two players in all were not allowed to play as they were found to be overage. They have all come from far away areas after all so we decided to let them stay and see the matches.” said secretary Pakistan Federation Baseball (PFB) Khawar Shah.